Thursday June 4, 2015

Spain’s Air Traffic Controllers will be abandoning their towers next week, threatening the travel plans of tens of thousands of British and Irish tourists.

Strike action is currently planned for June 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th, with controllers walking out for two hours, from 10.00 to 12.00 each morning and two hours, from 18.00 to 20.00 each afternoon.

How bad will the disruption be?

Despite the fact that action is limited to four hours per day this is still expected to cause widespread disruption to flights to and from the UK from all parts of Spain, including Lanzarote and the other Canary Islands, resulting in definite delays, whilst also raising the possibility of flight cancellations.

National government figures have stated that they will be able to run services at around 70% of their usual capacity during these hours. And on the neighbouring island of Fuerteventura the local tourist board has organized 1300 emergency beds for tourists who are unable to travel as a result of strike action.

What’s The Beef?

The controllers are walking out in protest at the sanctions and sackings imposed upon 61 USCA union members based at Barcelona Airport by AENA, the Spanish airports authority, after they conducted a hugely disruptive wildcat strike back in December 2010 which resulted in 600,000 stranded passengers and the government calling in the military to man Spain’s control towers.